AUBURN, Ala. (WIAT) — After a day of rest, Auburn returned to the practice field. Today a special guest of honor was there for both observation and motivation.

Auburn graduate, Jason Dufner, coming off his first Major win, spent some time talking with the players.

Head coach Gus Malzahn said his team needed to hear what Dufner had to say.

“We talked to our team about mental toughness, you know what he did this last weekend was really unbelievable,” said Malzahn. “It was an honor for our players to have him speak to what we are definitely big fans for Jason Dufner,” said Malzahn.

Dee Ford, a key to the Auburn defense, is still out battling a knee injury. He didn’t practice today.

As far as the quarterback race, it’s going to be a new guy either way. That makes the ground game very important.

“Well we’ve always been a big run team,” said Malzahn. “So obviously any time you have a new quarter back the run games your best friend. And so we’re going to rely on our offensive line and our running backs early and thats not to say we aren’t going to throw it because we like we can do that,” said Malzahn.

Three quarterbacks are still taking the reps under center, but Wednesday after practice, Malzahn gave a timeline of naming the starter.

“It could be tomorrow, it could be the next day, Saturday Sunday, anytime before next Monday would be really good for us,” said Malzahn. “But like I said before I am not for sure.”